Sunday’s 63rd running of the Daytona 500 will be lead to the green flag by a pair of Hendrick Motorsports teammates.
Alex Bowman took the pole position on Sunday after out-qualifying his teammate William Byron and the rest of the 44-car field by an astonishing 0.25 seconds.
He blew the rest of the drivers away, but credited his team for giving him the fastest car on the track on Wednesday night.
“It doesn’t have a whole lot to do with me,” Bowman said on the Fox Sports 1 broadcast. “It’s a testament to all the work these guys do back at the shop. They put a whole lot of work into this one. It’s what we work for and we were able to accomplish it.”
For Bowman, it’s the second time in his career that he has earned the pole for the race.
As for Chevrolet, the manufacturer takes home its ninth-straight Daytona 500 pole award.
Ryan Preece and David Ragan locked themselves into the race as two of the eight non-chartered teams that qualified on Wednesday night.
NASCAR allotted two of the four spots it had available in the race for the teams that didn’t have a charter to confirm their spots.
The other two spots will be settled on Thursday night with the twin, 125-mile duels at Daytona that determine the starting lineup for the race. The highest finishing non-chartered car in each respective duel will clinch a spot in the Great American Race.
The duels kick off on Fox Sports 1 on Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. CT.